14 Terrace Review —

TERRACE — The spec-
tral images of fire, flood,
earthquakes,
and other catastrophes
haunt news reports from
distant places in a seem-
ingly endless series of dai-
ly manifestations. Few

people enjoy considering

the possibility of such
events taking place closer
to home, but Ray Tank,
area coordinator for Ter-
race Emergency Services,
has a plan just in case.
Tank brings more than
six years of search and
rescue experience to the

volunteer position, and he -

believes public awareness
of measures to be taken in
the event of a large-scale
emergency is one key-to
preventing unnecessary
loss of life and property.
To increase that aware-
ness, a public meeting will

be held April 9 at 7 p.m. in

New
taxes
simpler
but more
expensive

‘TERRACE — The
elimination of some sur-
taxes on personal income
in the 1987 federal and
provincial budgets will

make tax calculations

for individuals more
straight forward, but the

taxes in all income
brackets are going to be
higher.

Terrace accountant
Alan McAlpine said

recently the provincial,

budget abolished an eight
percent health care surtax
and a 10 percent surtax on

‘calculated taxes over

$3,500 in favor of a
straight 51.5 percent rate
on federal tax payable for
all: income brackets. He
stated although the
arithmetic involved in
preparing tax returns will
be simplified everyone is
going to be paying more
for the coming year. A
_ wage earner at the lower
"end of the scale with, for
example, a taxable income

of $7,832 will pay $625 in.
provincial income tax for -

1987, compared to $577 in
1986. In the upper reaches
~of.the scale, an individual
with taxable earnings of
$63,347 will now. pay an
additional $257.
‘The removal of surtaxes

has “thrown the greatest

tax increases on middle i in-
come eafters, with in-
dividuals ‘having taxable
incomes of $30,000 paying
more in increases than
those in the $60, 000° plus
bracket,

McAlpine pointed out

that changes to federal tax
calculations also removed
continued on page 23

avalanches

refinement.

- Wednesday, April L 1987

Public i nvolverniel
sought in local —
disaster planning

the Terrace fire hall at:

3215 Eby St.

Some of the conditions
in and around Terrace
that could trigger opera-
tion of an emergency plan
include flooding, search
and rescue incidents, wild-

_ fire infringing on the com-

munity from forest areas,
earthquake (Terrace is Io-
cated directly on a fault
zone), dangerous goods
accidents and industrial
emergencies. Tank said in
a recent interview that, al-
though these incidents

would involve several, a- -

gencies, trained volunteers
will play a major role in

coordination of their ace”

tivities.

When the Terrace
RCMP detachment va-
cates the bottom floor of
the municipal building to
move into their new head-
quarters next door, a por-
tion of the vacant space
will be dedicated to a

Special control room for .
- -emergency services, Tank .
‘said. the room will be

equipped with radio and

-telephone equipment for

use by designated staff in

‘the event ofa major civil

problem.
The.. ‘procedural bible
for community disasters is

_ the provincial emergency

manual, It provides guide-

‘lines to be followed in se-

quence for every type of
emergency and includes
government agency con-
tact numbers and a check-

list for each general type

of emergency. ‘‘The.con-
trol center will be a place
to collect information
from many different
sources, and it avill allow
decisions to be made in a
controlled environment,”
Tank said.

The emergency services
plans in Terrace are ideas
in a state of evolution and
Components
of: the planning committee
include RCMP represen-
tatives,
consultants, and volun-
teers for the administra-
tion, engineering, commu-
nications, medical, public
health, and social services
aspects of emergency co-
ordination activities, Tank
noted that organizational
volunteers for supply and
transportation have not
yet been found.

Tank said .the public
meeting April 9 will
be held to elevate public
awareness of actions that
will be taken under emer-
gency conditions, but he
also indicated that sugges-
tions from Terrace resi-
dents will be welcome,

Tank expressed par-
ticular concern about
methods of alerting people
in the event of threats to
public safety. He pointed

_ out that during the exten-

sive flooding that occur-
red in 1978 the first notifi-
cation of danger was call-

- ed.into a local radio sta-

tion rather than the

‘Meeting is requested to ad-

RCMP.
“Pm. concerned with i
coordinating the activities,
personnel and facilities of
the various resource agen-
cies,’ Tank. said. “With
an informed public, panic }
and turmoil do not neces- ©
sarily have to follow dis-
aster.”
. Anyone wishing’ to at-
tend the public awareness

vise Denise Fisher at Ter-
race City Hall.

Ray Tank, area coordinator for Terrace Emergency. Services, recently announced he will hold a
public meeting April 9.to increase local awareness of plans that would be put into action In the .
event of a large-scale community emergency. ~ --

April’ S astronomy calendar

Stars over Terrace

fire department —

by Allen Wootton, Terrace contributor
Each day now the Sun seems to be getting warmer and

-]'m sure plants, people and other animals: ‘appreciate .

this very much.

Surprisingly- though, we are moving steadily farther.

from the Sun at this time of the year. The Earth’s orbit
takes it (and us) closest to the .Sun (147.1 million
kilometres away) on about Jan. 2, and we are five
million kilometres farther away in early July.

I am sure that most people know that the reason. that

‘the northern hemisphere gets warmer at this time of the.

year is because the Earth’s north pole i is now tilted
towards the Sun.

This tilt-of the Earth’s axis has a much greater effect
on the temperature of the Earth than a change of
distance from the Sun of five million kilometres. Now
the north pole of the axis is tilted toward the Sun our

days get longer. As well, the sunlight that reaches us is
less spread out and is: less affected by the Earth’s at-

mosphere. To me it is remarkable that the tilt of the

Earth’s ‘axis should have such a major effect on the.

seasons on the surface of the Earth.
If we imagine that we are viewing the Earth and Sun

* from outer space, we know. that it is the Earth that is
revolving about the Sun. Viewed ftom the Earth,

however, it is the Sun that appears to be doing the mov-
ing. A record of the Sun’s position in the sky for a year
(the position of the Sun with respect to the stars, not the
daily motion caused by the Earth’s rotation) will give
the position of the Sun’s path, the ecliptic, As I men-

tioned-last month, the time-that the ecliptic crosses the

extension of the Earth’s equator is officially the start of
spring, the vernal (or spring) equinox.

You may know that Easter is quite late this year. The .

date of Easter depends on astronomical positions. It oc-

curs on the first Sunday following the first full moon.

after the vernal equinox, This year, the first full moon

‘after the vernal equinox occurs on Tuesday, April 14.
Thus Easter is Sunday, April 19. Besides its religious

significance, the “relationship between . the vernal
equinox and Easter means that Easter coincides with the
natural renewal of spring (at least for us northern
hemisphere residents).

The full moon of April 14 will also be eclipsed. This

Terrace ballroom —
dancers form club

TERRACE — On Thurs-
day, March 26, 16 people
from
formed a new club called
the Terrace Ballroom

. Dancers.
This club is for the

many people in Terrace
who have taken ballroom
dance classes in the past
and now want to practice
and improve upon their
skills and for those who
love dancing and are look-
ing for a regular time and
place to go and dance.
The Terrace Ballroom

the Terace area’

Dancers will be meeting
on Thursdays at 8 p.m. at
the Terrace Arena Ban-

quet Room on a regular
basis. Anyone interested
in joining is invited to at-
tend. The fee will be $3
per couple each evening.

While no executives were
elected at this meeting, a

number of people offered
to take on certain posi-
tions until the fall. The
contact person for Terrace
Ballroom Dancers will be

Pat Jacobs. If you are in-

have questions, give her a

‘and Anna Klien will help

eclipse will be less spectacular than usual because it will
be what is called a penumbral eclipse. This means that
the moon will not be in the region of total shadow.
behind the Earth (the umbra), only in the region where
some of the Sun’s light is blocked out by the Earth. This
region of partial shadow is called the penumbra _
meaning next to the umbra — and thus the eclipse is
penumbral. As. well, the eclipse will be well under way

by the time the moon rises for viewers in this part of the —
‘world. If it is clear on the evening of April 14, however,
, do look_at the moon for unusual. effects.

The beautiful constellation Orion and the zodiac con-
stellation Taurus are rapidly getting lost in the evening
twilight. Above and to the east of Orion are the two
bright stars of Gemini, Pollux and Castor, and coming
into prominence to the east again of Gemini is the
zodiac constellation’ Leo, You can trace the ecliptic
through the sky if you find these constellations. The star
Regulus, in Leo, is almost exactly on the ecliptic, in
fact..

: —— eg
- A

Pollux oe o :
- -

- we,
germit!

7 . ‘patelgaus®

There are two easy to see planets this month. One of
these is Mats which will be visible in the west just north
of the-star Aldebaran in Taurus for a couple of hours
after sunset. The other is Saturn which will be visible in

the . morning sky starting about five hours before

sunrise,

Although the increasing amount of. daylight makes
night ‘time astronomy more difficult, I hope you get
much pleasure this month from seeing more of our

nearest star. Beare
In Court =

cH

In Terrace Provincial | -
Court on Wednesday, -
March 11 Terrance ‘Mc-
Cuish was fined $400 for ~
operating a motor vehicle |.
while his ability to drive .

was impaired.
x ek

terested in joining and

call at 635-2670, - Neil
Flieschmann will be the
treasurer, Ron Jacobs will
be in charge of the music

with the publicity.

The Terrace Ballroom
Dancers hope to continue
until late May and then
anticipate starting with a
strong group in Sept-
ember. Keep this new club
in mind and, if you can’t
join now, start in the fall.